The distributed equipment 2 is capable of being interrogated regarding the content of the daughter database 4, for example by client items of equipment 5, 6, 7, which can comprise user terminals. According to another example, the distributed equipment comprises a user interface allowing to interrogate it directly.
The mother 3 and daughter 4 databases are structured with entries, each entry comprising at least one search field value and optionally one or more attributes.
During an interrogation step, the distributed equipment 2 receives a message comprising a piece of information, referenced URL_n0 in FIG. 1. The database 4 is consulted in order to search for this URL_n0 information among the search field values of the database. The distributed equipment 2 returns a response, referenced AUTH in FIG. 1, depending on the result of the search.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the database 4 can store a list of URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses and, for each URL, an attribute value indicating if the content corresponding to this URL is or is not disapproved for children. The distributed equipment 2 can for example belong to an internet access provider. If the value URL_n0 sent by the client equipment 5, for example a child's computer, is found in the database 4 and if the corresponding attribute in the database 4 has a value such that access is not disapproved for children, the equipment 2 returns a response AUTH authorising the equipment 5 to display the content corresponding to the value URL_n0.
The invention is in no way limited to the protection of children on the Internet applications.
The central and the distributed equipment can typically belong to different people. For example, the daughter database is sold or leased by a database producer controlling the central equipment to a person, for example a software publisher or an internet access provider, controlling the distributed equipment. The latter is thus able to use the daughter database for a use other than that foreseen by the database producer. For example, the daughter database could be transferred from the distributed equipment to a third party, disclosed, copied partially or totally reused, etc.